Taylor Swift fans struggled Tuesday as the pop sensation sent them on a virtual Easter egg hunt to reveal her new “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” track titles — only to be faced with technical difficulties.
Swift announced her upcoming “1989” remake last month while performing in Los Angeles, and that “Taylor’s Version” will feature previously unreleased songs. Vault songs are included on her three previous remastered releases as an added benefit for fans who stream and purchase the albums.
Swift previously revealed vault tracks for “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” by releasing a video with cryptic lyrics.
Google announced Tuesday that its search function will populate a series of 89 puzzles that fans can solve to eventually reveal the names of the new songs.
“You’ll help Swifties around the world get out of the woods (or unlock the box) as everyone collectively solves 33 million puzzles,” Google said. “And that’s how it works, that’s how you get the titles on the vault track!”
Some international fans first noticed a small blue vault populating Saturday as they searched for “Taylor Swift,” building anticipation as Swifties awaited the reveal of what the vault meant.
The puzzle began with the vault revealing an encrypted version of Swift’s upcoming album name and would reveal more riddles as contestants entered answers into the search box.
But many fans (including this NBC News reporter) believe there has been one error as they search for the answers without subsequent progress.
Some fans were frustrated that they could not participate or were upset by the large number of puzzles required when the game did not work properly.
“I feel like Taylor keeps forgetting how big she is,” a user wrote the X, formerly known as Twitter. “33 million is a lot when you consider that the vault doesn’t work. Google has to process who is playing the game and who is really trying to search for sunglasses, which I think is what screws it all up”
Another joked“we definitely won’t get 33m before the album comes out with this stupid box that doesn’t work.”
Google approached error in a post on X late Tuesday.
“Swifties, the vault is stuck! But don’t worry, there are no empty seats inside,” the company wrote. “We are in our fix-it era and will soon be out of the woods.”
A representative for Swift did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Swift wrote one clip Tuesday afternoon of a blue vault opening on her Instagramcaptioning the video with “You can tell me when the *search* is over… if the high was worth the pain.”
Searches for “Taylor Swift” spiked after the post and remained high for a few hours, according to data from Google Trends. Swift reached her peak Google search interest at 3 p.m. Tuesday, two hours after her post, before falling slightly.
“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is scheduled for release on October 27, exactly nine years after the original’s release.
